Exporting old iron - a scam?

[Andy1845c]

I have an old D8 15A i've had up on facebook marketplace for a while. Old cable machine from the 50's. Everyone who's inquired so far has ghosted me after I ask they look into trucking before coming out to look. Sticker shock on a wide load I suppose.
I had a guy call me last night claiming he wanted to send it down to Nicaragua. I told him this thing is from the 50's and would cost more than my asking price to get moved that far... he was undeterred. Didn't seem legit so I kinda blew him off. (and even if he was I am not getting involved in something like that).

Scam? I don't know exactly how it would operate if it is. Wondering if you guys who jockey machines daily have seen this. I realize old iron gets exported all the time but this machine just seems too old for that to be reasonable.

 

[Welder Dave]

The scam is how they want to pay you. I put some small items on Kijiji. Barely had them listed and get a text a guy wants them right away. Says he'll pay with a certified cheque to my phone. I said I've never done that. Then he explains how it works. He takes a photo of the "certified" cheque from both sides and sends it to my phone. He wants my full name and address for the cheque and he'll have one of his people pick it up. I told him to call me the next day at 4 because I was busy. Never got a call. How can you send a text for a certified cheque was was one of the big red flags. Why not just have your people pay me when they come to get it is another one and who has people to pick stuff up for them? They usually want to pay extra and then you send them the difference. Nicaragua, forget it.

 

[92U 3406]

I'd tell him you want cash in hand and he makes all the arrangements for getting it off your property.

 

[mowingman]

Well, sometimes these things do work out, but you have to be very careful. About 10 years ago, while in north Texas, I advertised a truck tractor for sale on Craigslist. A guy with a Hispanic name contacted me from Louisiana about buying it. He was calling from someplace in Houston, Tx. He wanted to buy it, site unseen, and the money would be sent to my bank via wire transfer, from his financial backer, who owned some farm in Washington state as I recall. So, I was pretty skeptical about this deal. I did some online research and found that the "farm", was actually a corporation on the west coast that is one of the biggest lettuce producers in the country. Sure enough, a day or so later, the funds showed up in my account at the bank. The buyer came by about a week later to pick up the truck and take it to his job in Louisiana. We are still friends to this day. Who would have thought something like this would not be a scam?

 

[Joe H]

The guy in Nicaragua knows what it's worth to him in Nicaragua, you don't.

If he calls back take his money. Wire transfers work, $ shows up in your acct in about a week from overseas. The banks get to keep it for about 4 days so they make some % on top of the fees they charge. About $75 from overseas.

Joe H

 

[PBEtrucking]

You'd be surprised, ive sold 2 dump trucks that got exported. The first was a 1988 international, 3 guys from Honduras came (very late but that's besides the point) and paid cash and drove that thing 3 hours south to NYC and it eventually got sent out from the port of jersey. The second one was my favorite, a 1978 mack R model, the feller was from Nigeria, he came in a very nice Mercedes, asked to hear the truck run, watch the dump body go up and looked at the tires, proceeded to pay the 14 grand asking price in cash with no negotiations and then we talked about the exporting business for longer than we did the truck lol. He said Nigeria is being rapidly industrialized and there's not alot of available equipment, also due in part to the poverty of the area and the remote location with no tech support they prefer 70's and 80's equipment, particularly Macks due to the toughness and ease of working on them. He also went on to say that the operators are not trained at all and will load whatever will fit on a truck while running out both sides so they actually prefer 10 wheelers with 14 or 15ft boxes instead of long tri axles that they could load 30 tons of product I to and break the trucks constantly. Guy was interesting, I enjoyed that deal very much.

 

[sfrs4]

The thing with old iron and less developed countries is quite simple, they will pay over the odds for basic machinery, especially the type that doesn't need a " tech " and laptops to fix anything, to them old is literally gold. We (in the UK ) have just sold a Volvo A30C dumper, with a blown engine and no middle axle to Cyprus, take a look on the map, even google says it can't make a driving route there! but they paid a lorry and low loader turned up, we pushed it on and waved goodbye.

 

[GODSDOZER]

Had a d6n that was in bad shape. guy gave me 10K to get it off my yard. He was shipping it overseas for parts.